In recent years, endoscope systems which perform endoscopy and endoscopic diagnosis by displaying endoscope images, picked up by an image pickup section using a solid state image pickup element, on a display unit have spread widely.
In addition, in an endoscope system, it is possible to perform monitor display with selecting a pickup image by an endoscope and a screen image of an external device, such as a video printer and an image filing apparatus.
On the other hand, a digital video signal has an advantage that there is less attenuation of signal strength at the time of transmission, degradation, and incorporation of less noise in comparison with an analog video signal, and hence, ones corresponding to a digital video signal have increased in video processors and peripheral devices (including monitors also) connectable to these.
In addition, as for endoscope image signals picked up with solid state image pickup elements, there are also endoscope systems which can output two kinds of video signals, an SDTV signal (standard image signal) and an HDTV signal (e.g., an high-definition video signal), from a video processor.
Furthermore, it is also performed to lessen a number of signal lines by multiplexing a luminance signal and color-difference signals into a serial signal when transmitting a digital video signal of an endoscope image to a monitor after performing signal processing of it, and further multiplexing machine type information of the endoscope, and a control signal, based on an instruction by an operation section, in a blanking period of the serial digital video signal (e.g., refer to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-305373).
By the way, when making two kinds of video signals, an SDTV signal and an HDTV signal, taken in from an image pickup section into serial digital video signals by a video processor respectively, and switching them into one of the serial digital video signals according to an instruction by the operation section to output it to an external device, when outputting and storing it on storing devices such as a DVD while outputting and displaying it on a monitor such as a liquid crystal display device, display switching of the SDTV signal and the HDTV signal is performed in an instant without a temporal gap in a monitor by a selection switching signal on the basis of the instruction by the operation section, but, since storage switching in a storing device was performed by analyzing and discriminating the SDTV signal and the HDTV signal in a storing device side, it needed time to execute an analysis and discrimination algorithm, switching was not performed in an instant, and there might arise delay, for example, in switching to HDTV from SDTV.
For this reason, there was an issue of generating a little lack in a video of the HDTV signal to be stored next when switching, for example, from the SDTV signal to the HDTV signal. Since lasers at different wavelengths are used when storing the SDTV signal and the HDTV signal, the switching delay in the storing device side at the time of the storage arises also in laser switching with following the switching of the SDTV signal and the HDTV signal.
A method of generating the delay as less as possible according to the switching of the video processor which is a delivery side is necessary for switching control in a side of an external device, in particular a storing device.
Then, in view of the above-mentioned issue, an object of the present invention is to provide an image processing apparatus for an endoscope which performs switching of video storage of an SDTV signal and an HDTV signal in an instant in a storing device according to switching in a processor side hardly to generate a period when a stored video stops.
A second object is to provide an image processing apparatus for an endoscope in an endoscope system which can specify an endoscope apparatus from a filed digital video signal even if a malfunction arises in a switching (selection) section in the case of filing with selectively switching digital video signals from a plurality of endoscope apparatuses.
A third object is to provide an image processing apparatus for an endoscope which can perform effective or good (suitable) processing as an endoscope image by changing amplitude of a dynamic range between an output in an analog video signal, and an output in a digital video signal when outputting a video signal, on which digital processing is performed, to external devices such as a monitor, or changing amplitude of a dynamic range of a digital video signal according to an endoscope to be used.